pearl jam
The 40 Greatest Music Video Artists
Music videos are the perfect bastard child of art and commerce, even more than pop music itself. A promotional visual accompaniment to a popular song doesn’t need a coherent narrative (although on rare occasions, they do). It just needs to suit the song, sell the record, and possibly make the artist look cool. But since the launch of MTV 40 years ago this week, a select few recording artists have helped raise music videos to an art form — sometimes by accident, and sometimes by carefully curating the work of brilliant directors like Mark Romanek, Hype Williams, and Spike Jonze. Here are 40 artists from the last four decades that helped video kill the radio star. 40. Lil Kim [embedded content] Although earlier female MCs like Salt-N-Pepa and Queen Latifah used music videos to help launch th...
Ohana Festival Announces Encore Weekend With Pearl Jam Headlining Both Nights
Music festival fans know what they want and what they want now is an encore weekend for the fifth annual, Eddie Vedder-founded Ohana Festival. So here’s what they are getting: a two-day extravaganza on Friday, Oct. 1 and Saturday, Oct. 2 at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, California headlined by Pearl Jam on both nights. Other performing artists include Beck, Brandi Carlile, Sleater-Kinney, Lord Huron, Margo Price, White Reaper, NHC (Navarro Hawkins Cheney), ZZ Ward, Pluralone, Anythyst Kiah, Joe Wong + Nite Creatures, St. Panther, Naked Giants and Vanillaroma. Week one of the festival is already sold out, but you can snag tickets for the encore weekend Friday, July 23 at 10am PST here. Ticket options include Single Day GA, Single Day VIP, 2-Day GA and 2-Day VIP. A portion of the proceed...
Eddie Vedder Says Ten ‘Getting Too Big’ Almost ‘Crushed’ Pearl Jam
In lieu of the coming 30th anniversary of Pearl Jam’s debut full-length, Ten, which was released on Aug. 27, 1991, Eddie Vedder and guitarist Mike McCready recall the album’s titanic success, and it’s titanic weight on the band following its intractable success in a recent feature from the latest issue of Classic Rock magazine. Upon its release, it didn’t do that well. That is, until it gained traction after MTV put “Jeremy” in heavy rotation. The band wasn’t expecting such a sudden jump into the limelight and was overwhelmed. Vedder thought that, with the mass popularity of the album on their backs, fame would do them in. “It’s getting too big too quickly,” he remembered. “We were going to be crushed, our heads were going to pop like grapes.” Even after releasing their sophomore fol...
Jeff Ament to Release New Solo Album I Should Be Outside
Last year, Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament released a rapid-fire, five songs in seven minutes EP last summer in a flurry of creative energy that overtook him after Pearl Jam’s Gigaton tour was pushed due to the pandemic. He told us at the time that he was working on a lot of music back then, in particular, that five songs on American Death Squad were written in the first week of quarantine when Ament says he got into “Bob Pollard mode” and just cranked out tunes. It turns out he wasn’t kidding. Ament is set to release the soon-to-be post-COVID appropriate I Should Be Outside, his fourth proper solo, album on August 10. In a lengthy statement shared through Pearl Jam’s Ten Club newsletter, Ament explained the origins of the album. You can see that letter in full below. CREDIT: Ten Club As...
Eddie Vedder’s Ohana Festival to Return in September
Last year, Eddie Vedder’s Ohana Festival was pushed to literally a calendar year later because of the pandemic. On Wednesday, the fest confirmed its return to Southern California on the last weekend of September with a slightly tweaked lineup. Retaining the same lineup, which includes several classic rock bands and singer-songwriters, Vedder’s festival will also mark Pearl Jam’s first official shows since 2018 and coincides with the 30th anniversary of the band’s debut album, Ten. Friday night’s headliners are recent SPIN cover subjects Kings of Leon and Vedder himself (he’s headlined every Saturday since the fest’s inception in 2016) on top of Pearl Jam’s festival-closing set on Sunday night. Last year, Pearl Jam released Gigaton, and you can read our review of that album here. ...
Pearl Jam Unveil New Live Archives Site
Since 2000, Pearl Jam have released almost every show they performed, with a handful of notable ones not included. In case you can’t find that scratched old official bootleg CD from 2000 or didn’t pull the trigger quick enough to download or order a CD in 2003 and so on, now you’re in luck. The band unveiled Deep, a new hub site where all of the recordings will be held, which includes over 200 shows and a whopping 5,404 songs performed in that time. Of course, that time includes the 2000 Binaural tour, 2003’s Riot Act tour, the short 2008 run and the Lightning Bolt tour from 2013. If revisiting your favorite PJ show from those tours isn’t enough, there’s Custom Setlist Generator where you can choose your own show (and adventure) on the site. Taking things a step further for super...
Mike McCready on His New Guitar and Pearl Jam’s Year That Wasn’t
Mike McCready, one of the most underrated guitarists of the past 30 years, should be celebrating the one-year anniversary of Gigaton out on the road. But fans all know what happened there: Pearl Jam was one of the first bands to postpone a tour at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic — as bassist Jeff Ament told us last year, they had to act quickly and decisively. But McCready hasn’t been sitting idle during his pandemic year. Like his bandmates, he’s had the chance to work on other endeavors, like launching his own limited-edition signature Fender guitar. It’s based on McCready’s 1960 Stratocaster, which he thought for years was a 1959 model, the one his hero Stevie Ray Vaughn played. McCready says his Strat is the first thing he bought when the band took off ...
62 Musicians Predict the 2021 Baseball Season
Somehow, some way, it’s baseball season again. Yes, already. Last year’s abbreviated run saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Tampa Bay Rays in six games to win their first World Series title in 32 years, something that Ben Gibbard predicted in our 2020 preview. As you can imagine, Dodgers fans — especially the ones below — are in great spirits heading into the 2021 season. So what does that mean about this year? Absolutely nothing. As COVID restrictions start to loosen and with more fans allowed back into stadiums, excitement is beginning to buzz, especially with our group of experts. Like last time, many are hopeful that this will be their team’s year. We searched far and wide to get predictions for the upcoming Major League Baseball season, creating a proper barometer of what these su...
The 50 Best Alt-Rock Love Songs
Not all love songs are romantic. Not all love songs are even happy. It all depends on your definition of the term. For every “My Girl” or “Your Song,” there’s at least one track with a nuanced take on the darker, more complicated sides of love — the drama of a long-term relationship, the fear of losing a partner, the void left in love’s wake. Many of those songs fall under the admittedly broad umbrella of “alt-rock.” So to mark Valentine’s Day, we decided to gather 50 of our favorite “love songs” in the genre — both conventional and otherwise. Throughout this list, you’ll find lines about blooming romance and marital bliss. You’ll also find nods to drug addiction and car crashes. There’s something for everyone. – Ryan Reed 50. that dog. – “I’m Gonna See You” You take the good, you tak...
Pearl Jam Tribute Band Changes Name to Legal Jam After Alleged ‘Cease & Desist’ Letter
Pearl Jamm, a British Pearl Jam tribute act — obviously — claims to have received a cease and desist letter in September 2020 and as a result, they’ve now changed their name to Legal Jam. While the legal doc has not been seen, Pearl Jamm indicate that the band with only one “m” requested they change their name and logo, claiming that it was too close to Pearl Jam’s actual name and logo, designed by PJ bassist Jeff Ament, which it owns under intellectual property and trademark laws. “Pearl Jam had not raised any concerns about any aspect of our existence whatsoever, having acknowledged both our name and logo usage for years,” the ersatz lineup wrote. “Quite the contrary. In fact, Pearl Jam have expressed gratitude and best wishes to our band.” It’s unclear how that gratitude and w...
Eddie Vedder Adds Four New Songs to Matter of Time Single
Eddie Vedder gifted fans with the five-song Matter Of Time bundle, a set of acoustic songs and covers performed and recorded throughout 2020, including a version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Growin’ Up.” The collection expands a previously released two-song EP, and includes the addition of “Future Days” from the 2020 Game Awards, and energetic at-home performances of the Pearl Jam classics “Porch” and “Just Breathe.” The Pearl Jam frontman initially introduced Matter Of Time in November with the title track “Matter of Time” and “Say Hi” as part of a digital livestream to benefit the EB Research Partnership (EBRP), which was co-founded by Vedder and his wife Jill to raise awareness and funds about EB, a life-threatening genetic disorder. In September, Vedder released two versions of the new...
Pearl Jam, Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone to Headline Lollapalooza Stockholm
Now that there’s a COVID vaccine out, it seems like a return to large-scale events could be around the corner. Look no further than today’s Lollapalooza Stockholm announcement. Pearl Jam, Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone, the Killers, DaBaby, Kacey Musgraves, the Pretty Reckless, Doja Cat and many more feature on the lineup. The event will take place from July 2-4 at Gärdet in Stockholm. A release explains, “Fueled by recent progress, organizers are optimistic that the festival will enjoy its return.” SPIN reached out to the event’s reps to see what, if any, COVID protocols will be instituted for the event. See the full lineup below. Tickets are on sale here. If the festival doesn’t take place in 2021, folks have the option to roll it over to Lollapalooza Sweden in 2022 or they can receive...
